On Wednesday, India witnessed a sweeping nationwide strike as lakhs of workers, farmers, and trade union members took to the streets, protesting the central government’s economic and labour policies—policies they denounced as anti-worker and pro-corporate.
Exempting essential services such as hospitals, pharmacies, airports, and metro rail, over 25 crore workers across India participated in the strike on July 9, as claimed by union leaders. The call came from 10 central trade unions and disrupted critical sectors including banking, insurance, transport, and education.
In a joint press release, the unions stated that workers from both formal and informal sectors, public and private enterprises, and government departments took part. Rural India saw large-scale mobilisations at block and sub-divisional levels, with agricultural labourers, farmers, and informal sector workers joining in. Students and youth were visibly active in many states. The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) and a joint front of agricultural labour unions played a key role in driving rural participation.
The strike was driven by a 17-point charter of demands, submitted last year to Union Labour Minister Mansukh Mandaviya. Union leaders claim that the government has failed to engage in meaningful dialogue and instead pushed through reforms that undermine labour rights, fuel privatisation, and intensify job insecurity.
Key sectors like power, railways, transport, and education were temporarily crippled, while farmers across several states joined the bandh in solidarity.
Trade union and farmers’ leaders declared that the massive response to the strike was a clear rejection of what they called “anti-people policies” pursued by the BJP-led central government and some state governments like Haryana. These governments, they allege, are not only ignoring people’s grievances but also attempting to divide society along communal and caste lines, all while aggressively promoting privatisation.
Inderjit Singh, national vice president of the All India Kisan Sabha and senior CPI(M) leader, told Ground Post that the strike’s success should serve as a “warning bell” to the government. He urged the immediate withdrawal of what he described as “draconian labour codes” and called for broader unity to resist price rise, unemployment, and erosion of labour protections.
In Punjab, the Bhartiya Kisan Union (Ekta Dakounda) supported the strike and joined protest gatherings in 14 districts. State president Manjit Singh Dhaner, along with other senior leaders, told the media that 25 crore workers had raised their voices against privatisation, dilution of labour laws, and proposed increases in daily working hours, from 8 to 12 hours.
Why the Strike?
This general strike followed prolonged, failed negotiations between trade unions and the government. Workers’ demands include the repeal of the four labour codes, job security, better wages, and a halt to the privatisation of PSUs and public services. It is reportedly the 22nd general strike since India embraced economic liberalisation in 1991.
Among the key demands are:
- Repeal of the four new labour codes
- Job security and regularisation of employment
- A minimum wage of ₹26,000 per month
- No to 12-hour workdays
- No to dilution of safety and social security provisions
The new labour codes—on industrial relations, wages, social security, and occupational safety—are viewed by unions as an attempt to legalise contract labour, dilute labour protections, and strip away decades-old rights won through struggles dating back to the British era.
“These codes negate our right to strike, make union registration harder, ease union de-recognition, and eliminate labour courts in favour of pro-employer tribunals,” the unions said in a statement. “They redefine wages in a manner that disadvantages workers, abolish schedules determining minimum wage coverage, and give employers sweeping powers to evade regulations.”
The Occupational Safety and Health Code, they claim, undermines basic workplace protections and dilutes inspections by replacing them with employer-friendly “facilitators.” Raising the industrial threshold from 100 to 300 workers will exclude nearly 70% of industries from key labour protections, unions warn.
Why Did Farmers Join?
The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) also lent its full support to the strike, organising protest rallies at tehsil-level across the country. SKM leaders stated that these reforms are part of a broader attempt to corporatise India’s economy, posing a threat not just to workers, but to national sovereignty and economic independence.
With over 25 crore participants, this strike is being hailed by trade unionists and farmers as one of the largest collective actions in recent memory. For them, the message is clear: India’s working and farming classes are ready to resist what they view as an attack on their rights, livelihoods, and dignity.
Farmers’ umbrella union, SKM, warns that the General Strike is also against the imposition of free trade agreements onthe Indian people. US Imperialism has unleashed all efforts to coerce the Modi Government to impose unfair trade terms and to dump US agricultural products in India. The free trade agreement intends to provide unregulated freedom for US food chains, trading giants, and agribusiness corporations to operate in India. Tariff-free Import of huge quantities of highly subsidised milk and milk products, soybean, cotton, mice, wheat, rice, pulses, oilseeds, paddy, GM crops, fruits and vegetables, including apple and walnuts, processed and canned foods into Indian markets will devastate the income and livelihood of Indian peasantry.
SKM alleges that the Trump Administration has been compelling the Modi Government to wind up PDS food distribution and withdraw all subsidies for farmers on fuel and fertilisers. It wants India to change its patent laws to suit American companies.
What irked the trade unions?
Noticing the dismissive and unresponsive approach of the central government, the Joint Platform of Central Trade Unions and Independent Sectoral Federations/Associations, while deciding the national strike, agreed to raise their voice unitedly and resolved, “Working hours are being unilaterally increased; statutory minimum wages and social security benefits are being flouted. Workers, particularly contract workers, are being retrenched with impunity. These are nothing but heinous attempts to implement notorious Labour Codes through backdoors. At the same time despite repeated persuasion by trade unions, the Govt did not bother to meet and consult the Central Trade Unions or to hold Indian labour conferences, despite receiving notices for strike from all corners of the country across the sectors.”
Now the trade unions have warned the government, “This is the beginning of the prolonged battle in the days to follow in the sectoral levels focused on determined united resistance, again to culminate into a bigger national level heightened united action.”
However, the reports coming here state that the strike movement was organized peacefully by the participants, but the Communist Party of India (Marxist) alleges a lathi charge at some places by the police forces.
In a statement released Wednesday, the Polit Bureau of CPIM contends, “Reports show that the police resorted to lathi charge in various places and attempts were made to intimidate workers from participating in the general strike. Braving all such attacks, the strike was held successfully. Kisan, agricultural workers, and various sections of the people too joined the workers in solidarity and held protest demonstrations.”
The CPI(M) congratulated all the people who stood with the working class and made this general strike a huge success. The left party demanded that the BJP led central government should listen to the voices against the labour codes and its anti-worker policies. It should immediately rescind the amendments to the labour laws and protect the rights of the working class. (The views expressed by the author are personal and do not reflect those of this e-paper. As a platform committed to fair journalism, we welcome diverse opinions, including those from freelance contributors. On this subject, our editorial stand has already questioned the credibility of the “25 crore” figure claimed by trade unions. Moreover, it is important to note that the NDA government has, in recent times, enacted several pro-labour reforms.)
